A Greece newspaper reports that the Ocean Countess cruise ship is on fire.
My favorite website, Maritime Matters, reports this evening:
“Majestic International’s MV OCEAN COUNTESS, completed in 1976 as CUNARD COUNTESS, is currently ablaze at Chalkis, where she has been laid up since her most recent charter to U.K.-based Cruise and Maritime Voyages.
P&O Ferries crisis management spokesperson Chris Laming recently responded to the disappearance of passenger Richard Fearnside.
He stated that P&O Ferries refuses to consider installing CCTV cameras on the Pride of Kent ferry.
He told a newspaper in Kent, U.K.:
"It is so rare. It is just not practical to consider doing this."
The parents of a 30 year-old passenger who disappeared from a ferry sailing between Calais and Dover are petitioning for legislation requiring ships to install closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras.
Richard Fearnside, son of Marianne and Bob Fearnside, of Whitstable, Kent (U.K.), disappeared from the Pride of Kent ferry last May. He was last seen
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A local news station WSVN – 7 reports on a lawsuit filed by a South Florida family after their son was allegedly beaten up by a security guard on board an unidentified Carnival cruise ship.
The lawsuit contends that a 14 year-old boy snuck into a nightclub on the cruise ship with his friends. When
This morning there’s lots of news articles praising new Carnival CEO Arnold Donald and his cruise line.
Businessweek published "Carnival’s Accidental CEO Plots New Course for Cruise Line" suggesting that CEO Arnold is the cruise giant’s new messiah who’s going to kill the weeds in the Carnival armada and turn things around.
The
Newspapers in Brazil are reporting on the recent death of a cruise passenger on a MSC cruise ship.
Mercedes Lessi Raia, age 87, was cruising on the MSC Preziosa cruise ship when she sustained a fall on a set of stairs. The ship was sailing around Europe on Tuesday, November 19, 2013. The accident is described
In the last week, there have been several articles about the cruise industry’s refusal to comply with the requirements of the Cruise Vessel Safety & Security Act to install automatic man-overboard systems.
The spirit and intent of Congress in enacting the legislation, as expressed in several hearings in Washington D.C. which I attended over the
The international media is abuzz over the plight of a young man suffering from obesity who has been refused transportation by planes, trains and even a cruise ship in his efforts to return from the United States to his home country of France. His family claims that he was discriminated against because of his weight
Earlier this morning we reported on the allision between the MSC Magnifica and a breakwater / pier at the entrance to the port in Piraeus Greece.
High winds reportedly blew the cruise ship into the structure, causing damage to the hull on the port-side of the MSC ship. A light on breakwater was destroyed by
A number of news sources in Greece are reporting that a MSC cruise ship ran aground (note correction below) today at the southeast Greek port of Piraeus. Greek port authorities released the information.
There were no injuries or major damage arising from the accident with the Panama-flagged ship Magnifica, the port authorities said. Bad weather
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A congressman and congresswoman in California have introduced proposed legislation which will provide rights to cruise passengers.
Congressman John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove CA) has introduced a bill designed to protect cruise consumers following repeated poor treatment of passengers on cruises this year. Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-Sacremento) co-sponsored the bill.
The proposed new law is called the
Today the Miami Herald published an article entitled "Overboard Cases on Cruise Lines Often Under-Reported to Public."
What jumps out from the article is that the cruise industry, as a whole, fundamentally still lacks transparency regarding the issue of cruise ship passengers and crew members going overboard on the high seas.
Miami Herald
The U.S. Coast Guard medevaced an 81 year old man from a Norwegian Cruise Line ship off the coast off Cape Hatteras early this morning.
The Norwegian Breakaway contacted the Coast Guard around 4 a.m. this morning to report that a passenger was suffering a heart-attack.
A Coast Guard helicopter crew responded to the ship
David Lazarus of the LA Times writes about how Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) refused to either refund or credit the cruise fare to 66 year old David Warlick and his wife after she was diagnosed with bladder cancer and underwent emergency surgery.
In his article "Cruise Line Unmoved By Customer’s Cancer Emergency," Lazarus
Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world, will enter dry dock in the Bahamas in February 2014 to undergo repairs to its propulsion system.
The decision was finally announced after the cruise line had been under criticism for not disclosing the Allure was unable to cruise any faster
I’m a fan of Matchbox 20’s lead singer Rob Thomas. You know his hits: 3:00 AM, Someday, & Smooth with Carlos Santana. Watch She’s Gone with Daryl Hall, pretty amazing, best played loud.
So it was weird to watch an interview of Thomas talking about the upcoming Sail the Sea tour aboard a
Multiple news sources are reporting that a woman is missing from the Grand Princess cruise ship.
The U.S. cruise passenger was last seen around noon. News accounts state that the crew of the Princess Cruises ship reported her missing to the U.S. Coast Guard around 1:00 PM.
The Coast Guard deployed a Hercules aircraft to
There has been remarkably little media coverage of the fire on the Dawn Princess cruise ship last weekend.
We were the first to report on the fire which broke out sometime after 8:00 PM Friday night as the Dawn Princess sailed between Wellington and Napier in New Zealand.
Princess Cruises was tight lipped about what
